BWB to Take to the California Skies: The Boeing X-48B blended wing prototype we reported on last month is slated for flight test sometime this year, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. The joint team of NASA, USAF, and Boeing concluded wind tunnel testing in May with one of two prototypes Boeing has built. It will be shipped to California to be used as a backup to the second vehicle when it starts flight tests out of Edwards Air Force Base. The Daily News reports that the blended wing body (BWB) aircraft will fly no higher than 10,000 feet and no more than 135 miles per hour during testing.
The B-21 Raider stealth bomber was recently flown, for the first time, by an operational pilot as part of its flight test process, the Air Force said June 11. And a top Pentagon official said the move to bring operational testing into the B-21 process earlier than normal shows the…